By George P. Edmonston Jr.

Since the founding of Oregon State University in 1859 as Corvallis College, at least three individuals with strong connections to OSU, a professor and two graduates, have served in the Oregon governor’s office. Here are brief sketches of their lives, originally authored by R. Gess Smith for the Web site "Oregon Governors," and used here with permission. Edited by George P. Edmonston Jr.

James Withycombe, photo from the '09 Orange.

James Withycombe (1915-1919)

Republican James Withycombe was born in Devonshire, England, on March 21, 1843, the son of Thomas and Mary Ann (Spurr) Withycombe. He married Isabel Carpenter on June 6, 1875, and they were the parents of Mabel, Harry, Robert, and Earl.

Withycombe attended school in Tavistock, England, then moved to the United States in 1871, when his parents settled on a farm in Oregon near Hillsboro. On April 17, 1900, Withycombe became a citizen of the United States. He was a farmer and a teacher of farmers and spent four years on his father's farm before buying his own 100 acre farm, which he later expanded to 256 acres.

He established a reputation as a successful scientific farmer and in 1898 was recruited by Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) to instruct Oregon's farmers in advanced agricultural methods. He was soon appointed Director of the College Experiment Station, from which he supervised the OAC’s agricultural extension program.

In 1906, Withycombe was the Republican candidate for governor, challenging incumbent George Chamberlain in a losing effort, 43,508 votes to 46,002. The Republicans turned to him again in 1914. This time he defeated Democrat Charles Smith, 121,007 votes to 94,595. He was inaugurated on Jan. 12, 1915.

As governor Withycombe promoted the development of the flax industry in Oregon by successfully encouraging the state legislature to subsidize the raising and processing of flax as a potential prison industry. He also encouraged road-building, claiming that money spent for roads was "the best investment" a state could make and later claiming that good roads were vital to national defense.

During World War I, Withycombe vigorously encouraged the people of Oregon to support the war effort and took great pride in the state's war industry. When the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W. or 'Wobblies') threatened to disrupt production in Oregon in 1917, the governor alerted the citizens of the state to the danger, as he perceived it, claiming the 'Wobblies' threatened to cripple industry and terrorize labor. In this regard, he instructed Klamath Falls authorities to jail members of the I.W.W. after a mill and elevator fire, encouraged public safety committees in eastern Oregon, and sent the National Guard to Astoria to prevent a strike at that city’s shipyards. For the further protection of the state, Withycombe organized veterans of the Spanish-American War and of Philippine Insurrection as the Oregon State Defense Force.

When he ran for re-election in 1918, Withycombe described himself as a war governor active in the nation's defense. He defeated Democrat Walter M. Pierce, 81,067 votes to 65,440, but died on March 3, 1919, after serving only two months of his second term.

John H. Hall, photo from the '23 Beaver.

John H. Hall (1947-1949)

A member of the Republican party, John H. Hall was born in Portland on Feb. 7, 1899, to Jessie E. (Belcher) and John H. Hall, prominent attorney and United States District Attorney for Oregon during William McKinley's and Theodore Roosevelt's presidencies. He was an Episcopalian. Hall married Elizabeth Walch on Dec. 28, 1926, and the two were parents of John III and Mary Elizabeth. After his wife's death in 1937, Hall remarried Alyce Johnson on Dec. 31, 1941, and the two had a daughter named Diane.

Hall attended Culver Military Academy (Indiana) and Portland’s Lincoln and Jefferson high schools. He served as a naval medical corpsman on the troop transport Florida during World War I. Returning home, he attended Oregon State College, graduating with a degree in business administration in 1923.

After a variety of jobs, Hall began the study of law at Northwestern College of Law, Portland, and was admitted to the bar in September 1926. He joined his father's firm until the elder Hall retired in 1932, then joined Jay Bowerman's firm, one of the continuing political centers of the Republican Party.

Hall's political career began in 1932 when he was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. He won election to that body again in 1938, then successive terms in 1942, 1944, and 1946. In the 1947 session his colleagues chose him speaker. It was from that position that he succeeded to the governorship upon the death of Earl Snell in a plane crash, officially taking office on Oct. 30, 1947.

Little known beyond his own intimate political circle, Hall immediately sparked a controversy by pressing for the resignation of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. In his representation of clients before the commission, he had found it to be arbitrary and non-judicial, believing it also to be uncooperative with the legislature.

Almost at the same moment, a major challenger appeared for the Republican nomination for governor the following May, in the announced candidacy of State Senator Douglas McKay, a friend of the late governor and leader of the state's automobile dealers' association.

Hall had little time to gain statewide recognition or approval for his views or actions. Without a strong organization such as McKay's, his showing was surprisingly strong, but his opponents portrayed him as an immoral spokesman who had served as counsel to nightclub owners and racing groups. He lost the Republican nomination to McKay in May 1948, 103,224 votes to 107,993. After leaving office, Hall moved to Lincoln County, where he practiced law, overcame cancer of the throat, won election to a term as District Court Judge and lived out the rest of his years in semi-retirement. He died at age 71, on Nov. 14, 1970, in Newport.

Douglas McKay, photo from the '17 Beaver.

Douglas McKay (1949-1952)

Born on June 24, 1893, in Portland, Oregon Stater Douglas McKay was the son of Edwin D., a carpenter, and Minnie A. (Musgrove) McKay, a Presbyterian. McKay married Portland stenographer Mabel Christine Hill March 31, 1917, and the two were parents to a son, killed in an auto accident in 1939, and two daughters, Shirley Evelyn and Mary Leu.

His father died when he was young and Douglas, as he later preferred to be called, rose from rags to riches, while supporting his mother and younger sister. He finished high school at night, then entered Oregon Agricultural College, where he received a B.S. in agriculture in 1917.

McKay saw action as an infantry officer in World War 1, which nearly cost him his life in the Meuse-Argonne in Oct. 1918. He was discharged 66 percent disabled. His dream of becoming a county farm agent ended, McKay turned to salesmanship, first insurance and then automobiles. In the time between 1927 and 1955, he built one of the state`s most successful Chevrolet dealerships in Salem, serving as president of the Oregon Automobile Dealers Association. A personable man with avid social interests, McKay joined a legion of organizations and groups. After moving to Salem, he became politically active, serving as mayor from 1933-35.

Marion County voters elected him their state senator in 1934, 1938, and again in 1946, after his return from a three-and-a-half year stint in the army at Oregon's Camp Adair (near Corvallis).

After 1937, McKay chaired the vital Road and Highways Committee, where his primary interests lay. He also chaired the Willamette Basin Project Committee. This appealed to his interests in flood control and river resource utilization. Although influential Republicans asked him to oppose Charles Sprague in the 1942 primary, he refused. Returning to the senate in 1947, McKay could have been named president, but declined.

When Governor Snell died (1947) and John Hall succeeded to the governorship, McKay made his move. Supported and financed by the powerful automobile dealers group, the wealthy Arlington Club of Portland, as well as veterans organizations, McKay defeated Hall in the May 21, 1948, primary, then won the governorship over Democrat Lew Wallace in the general election, 271,295 votes to 226,958, earning him the right to serve the remainder of Snell's unexpired term.

In November 1950, after having been unopposed in the Republican primary, McKay won a four-year term of his own over Democrat Austin F. Flegel, 334,160 votes to 171,750. While governor, McKay faced few problems in a period of expanding state revenues and general prosperity. He refused to take funds from the state's considerable financial reserve, accumulated from wartime taxation, to expand educational facilities or highway construction. Instead, he relied on a pay-as-you go program. He also sought federal funds for state needs, particularly for improvements and dams on the Willamette River. However, he supported the view that private local groups should help plan, control, and profit from such additions.

An early supporter of Dwight Eisenhower for the Republican nomination for President (1952), McKay was chosen in November of that year to became Eisenhower's Secretary of the Interior. In accepting the new job, McKay had to resign as governor, which he did on Dec. 26, after the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that Paul Patterson, president of Oregon's Senate at its last session, would succeed McKay, rather than his political adversary, Earl T. Newberry, the secretary of state.

McKay had limited success in heading the Interior Department with its 50,000 employees and huge budget. In 1956 he made a late entry into the Republican primary for the United States Senate. He won the primary but lost a bitter contest in the general election to Wayne Morse. Eisenhower then named McKay to chair the United States Section of the International Joint Commission to settle resource problems with Canada along the Columbia River. He held this post until his death in Salem, July 22, 1959, of aggravated heart disease.

-- By George Edmonston Jr. editor of Eclips and the Oregon Stater.